Love Again
by rileyluvr13
Summary: When the end of the best summer of her life is nearing, Victoire thinks it's the end of her relationship with Teddy. But he seems to know otherwise. One-shot. Teddy/Victoire. Songfic.


**A/N:** Hello everyone. I usually really, really don't like songfics, but this one was just screaming for someone to make a romantic oneshot out of it. The lyrics in this piece are from "Love Again" by Cascada, and I recommend listening to it, because it's a fun song that's totally catchy. This is my first Teddy/Victoire, the start of a long chain of them, so I hope you enjoy it! :D

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter or anything associated, nor do I own "Love Again" by Cascada. All rights belong to them.

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_**.:. Love Again .:.**_

"Victoire!"

I buried deeper into the ball I was curled in, letting the ocean break and soak my sweatpants wet with salty water and sand. My head was between my legs like a beaten puppy, and I probably looked like a hunchbacked monster in the eyes of a certain someone who was facing my back now. But it didn't really matter, did it?

I wasn't in love with him. I _couldn't_ be.

A single tear slowly slid down my cheek, and I rubbed it against the soft cotton covering my knee. He wouldn't see me crying. Not now. Not ever. Because this didn't mean anything. This summer, as short as it seemed to be, didn't mean anything at all. Not to him.

"Victoire!" he called again, and I could hear the soft thumps of his bare feet against the packed sand. I made an attempt to sit up a little straighter, just so I could look up into his eyes one last time, since he definitely _was_ approaching, and it wasn't from my dreams or imagination. "Victoire."

I shook my head ever so slightly, strawberry blonde strands of hair swinging into my vision. Just seeing the waves crash against the shore, reminding me of the countless moonlit swims we shared, was almost enough to send me bawling again. So I bit my lip hard and swiped at my eyes, just as a pair of feet stopped next to me.

I looked up at Teddy Lupin.

_I can see it in your eyes,  
__No more tears, no alibis._  
_I'm still in love with you._

Who was I trying to kid? Just looking into those brilliant brown eyes of his was enough to send my heart racing like I was on my Firebolt, and my mouth almost quirked upward into a small smile when I saw the hairstyle he was wearing: a striped mixture of black and electric blue. Being a Metamorphmagus, he always left me to guess what hairstyle he would come up with next.

I weakly held out one hand and gestured to the cleared sand next to me. He eased himself down, gently, slowly, as if afraid of what I would do if his butt touched the ground. Once he was seated, I only nodded my head to let him know I wasn't going to explode and turned back to face the ocean. It was gray and rough today, matching my mood almost perfectly.

At least I was composed, unlike last night. I remembered with crystal clarity when my mother, with Teddy beside me, said there were only two days left of summer. Spending the amazing, breathtaking summer with the guy beside me had taken away all my sense of time and awareness. So, without warning, I had dashed up the stairs to my room and cried my eyes out, knowing it was all going to be over in a matter of forty-eight hours.

I only faintly remembered Teddy banging on my door, yelling that I should come out and talk. Pleading and cooing terms of endearment to me through the cracks. But I refused to budge. Because with only two days left, there was no time left for us. And why make the break harder for myself by going in deeper?

And now, there were no more excuses for me to dash. He had found me, in this crazy game of hide-and-go-seek we were playing. So I could only just sit there and face the facts that I never wanted to.

_There's so much I gotta show,  
__I will never let you go._  
_But still I know for sure._

There wasn't anything I could do to reverse time. He graduated Hogwarts last year, would move on to become an Auror, or work at the Ministry, or any job he set his mind to really. I knew his extended family would support him in whatever he wanted to do, while I would continue onto my seventh and final year at Hogwarts, learning spells and potions that he undoubtedly got O's on in his N.E.W.T.s last year.

But I really didn't want to let him go. I wanted him to stay. With me. Wherever that may be.

That would never happen. No way in Merlin's beard. Things that lucky just didn't _happen_ to me. So I had to suck it up and face his rejection with a bright smile on my face, and maybe a small fight or two. The way I had to through the single bad mark on my O.W.L.s, and my granddad's death, and learning the story of the unbearable scars on my father's face.

Teddy was surprisingly quiet next to me, but I knew this silence wouldn't last. He would talk. I _knew_ he would. He always did.

_Come take me by the hand,  
__This summer never ends._

"Vic? What's wrong?"

I could see through my peripheral vision that Teddy was looking at me with concern in his eyes, but I kept on staring forward, determined not to meet his gaze, determined not to admit that I was hopelessly in love with him. He never intended for it to be more than a summer fling, right?

I felt a pair of strong hands, ones that I recognized, circle my right hand, and I finally turned to look at him. Concern filled his eyes, true Teddy Lupin concern that I had always seen echoed in those deep brown eyes ever since we were in diapers and didn't know how to talk to one another. It was a type of telepathic communication. We knew each other so well.

So it was certainly a surprise that neither of us knew to expect what happened this summer. Certainly not me.

"Please tell me." His voice was earnest, and a bit pleading. I knew what to say, it was on the tip of my tongue, _had_ been ready to burst out for the whole day, but I wouldn't say.

_And I wanna know,  
__Could you believe in love again?_  
_Please tell me now it's not the end._  
_Cause this I promise you so true,_  
_This summer belongs to you._

I shook my head. Because what good would it do to tell? Asking him to love me even after term started tomorrow and we were far apart from each other was as hopeless as convincing Uncle George that hanging his kids from the ceiling fan and making it rotate around as a punishment wasn't appropriate.

I didn't want this summer to end. It was the best summer of my entire life. It started out normal. We had hung out, talked, laughed, joked… kissed. Touched. Danced. Fell in love.

I guess I had always been in love with him, but in root deep denial, ever since Mum had set me in his playpen. Ever since then, Dad had been laying on the hints about us getting together that I promptly ignored. We were having a baby shower for Aunt Angelina one day when my dad really annoyed me.

"He's pretty cute, isn't he, Vic?" Dad had said, nudging me jokingly while Teddy was standing not two feet away from me. "Go ask him out! Best friends equal the best love, you know."

Of course, not wanting to be embarrassed in front of my newest friend, I scolded, "Dad! Stop it!" and punched him lightly on the arm.

And now, here we were. Me, seventeen. Him, eighteen. And Dad's words have followed and caught up with me this summer. And now I know for sure I was denying it all along.

I was hopelessly in love with Teddy Lupin.

And I never wanted this summer to end. I wanted to keep loving him. But he would never let that happen. It just wasn't the same. The summer, including the magic between us, would be gone tomorrow.

_Could you believe in love again?  
__How can I make you understand?_  
_But this I promise you so true,_  
_This summer belongs to you._

"Vic…" he said, and I could feel the pain in his voice as if it was my own. But I only turned my head in the opposite direction, facing the long span of beach to the left. My long hair was probably whipping into his mouth by now, but I didn't care. Because there was no way he'd ever understand why I needed him.

To him, it was only a summer fling. Nothing more.

I tried to convince myself that, but it only made me sadder. Because I'd never get him to fall in love with me again. Because this was it. The end of the summer. The end of love. The end of us.

_This summer belongs to you._

Teddy squeezed my hand harder, waiting for a response. What it was, he had no idea. Which was probably why he pleaded, "Victoire. Just say what's on your mind. I won't hate you for it."

It must've been the sincerity in his voice that did me in. The one that promised it wouldn't lie to me, and that every word was completely and utterly true.

So I said it.

"It's only for this summer," I managed to say in a voice that seemed incredibly broken and wavering to me. Was that how heartbreak sounded? I always imagined it came with tears and snot. But, whenever had anything with Teddy and me been 'normal'?

_Would you catch me if I fall?  
__Crash and burn and lose it all?_  
_Tell me what to do._

"What?" he asked, surprised. This obviously wasn't the answer he had expected. "What are you talking about, Victoire?"

But I just shook my head. How could he be so clueless to his own point? I couldn't say it out loud. If I did, the tear ducts would open up, and everything would just crash and burn. I'd lose all of the composure I'd hastily built up for this confrontation and simply fall.

And he wouldn't catch me.

"Vic, please." He took my other hand and cradled it in between his own two. The touch was warm and defrosted my frigid fingertips. "Please tell me what this is about. What do you mean, only for this summer?"

_Cause I need you night and day,  
__Will you ever run away?_  
_Just one more thing to say._  
_Come take me by the hand,_  
_This summer never ends._

I groaned a little and freed my hands from his tight grasp, dropping my head into them. His hand cautiously moved to the small of my back, and I shivered under his soft touch. I wanted it to be like this every day from now on.

But term started tomorrow. It was all over. Tomorrow.

"Don't you get it by now, Teddy?" I asked, voice muffled by my hands. I was too embarrassed to show my face. "Don't you understand what's going to happen when I start Hogwarts again tomorrow?"

"No, I don't understand." He sounded honest enough, so I picked my head up from my hands and faced him. His hair had changed from its previous color to a deep, soothing purple – one I recognized from when he attempted to comfort me in the past.

I just decided to spit it out.

"Teddy. Don't you get it? I need you. Night and day. Past starting term tomorrow."

_And I wanna know,  
__Could you believe in love again?_  
_Please tell me now it's not the end._  
_Cause this I promise you so true,_  
_This summer belongs to you._

I shook my head and averted my gaze from his bewildered expression, jaw slack and eyes wide. "I want to know… could you believe in loving me again? After this summer is over? Could you make this go past a summer fling? Do you love me enough to try that? Please, just tell me now that it's not the end."

My voice cracked on the last syllable and I turned my head back to face the ocean, but not before I saw the expression on his face. It was gradually softening, the creases around his eyes losing their stiffness.

But what did it matter? Here I was, spilling my heart, putting it out there for a huge risk. I doubted it would make a difference if I continued, but if I was going to start, why stop halfway?

"This summer will always belong to you, Teddy. But I'd like the rest of my life to belong to you, too."

_Could you believe in love again?  
__How can I make you understand?  
__But this I promise you so true,_  
_This summer belongs to you.__  
_

I let out an exasperated sigh angrily because I wasn't finding the right words, the ones that would make him stay with me in a heartbeat. Even if he left, I needed to know what he would do if I tried.

"How can I make you understand? That you're my everything for this summer, for forever? That you can't leave? That… I want you to love me again. If you ever loved me at first."

And, finished, I bowed my head to the sand. The tears were welling up in my eyes, willing to spill over at any second. He was strangely quiet. Which could only mean one thing: rejection. This was the end. I went down with a fight, at least. My mum always praised me on that, for inheriting her stubborn quality.

So it surprised me when I felt a soft touch on the underside of my chin, tilting my whole head upward upward. Teddy was right in front of my face, inches from my lips, eyes directly locked on mine. His close proximity was leaving me short of breath, and I lost all sense of everything when his hand moved to my tear-streaked cheek and pulled me forward into a breathtaking kiss.

No feeling in the world was like Teddy's kisses. They made me feel electric, alive with jolts of light, filled with energy. I just melted into it, letting all my thoughts flutter away in the wind, feeling those lips of his on mine for the last time.

When we finally pulled apart, his hair changed to a violent strawberry pink color and he breathed, "What made you think I was leaving you after the summer was over?"

I simply stared at him with wide, questioning eyes. "What… what do you mean? You're not at Hogwarts anymore. I'm just a seventh year witch. It would be nearly impossible for us to carry on, as much as I want it – "

"Then that's all that matters, right?" he said, smiling that grin that I'd come to love so, _so_ much. "Let me put this simply. You want us, and I want us. Is that enough to carry on a relationship?"

I grinned, nodding my head energetically and enthusiastically, and wrapped my hands around his neck, pulling him into a huge hug. Teddy laughed and stroked my long hair as a wonderful relief bubbled up in my gut.

He was mine. My euphoria at those words was enough to make my heart stop in my chest. Had my speech worked, made him feel guilty? Or did he really want to give me a chance, love me again, even though I was going to be at Hogwarts this upcoming year?

"To prove it," he whispered into my ear, "I'll come to see you off to Hogwarts tomorrow. Just me and you. To let the summer carry on into real life. To show you that you're mine."

I smiled, and all my worries just evaporated into thin air as I burrowed my head into Teddy's neck, knowing he was mine, finally mine, after all these years.

_This summer belongs to you._

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**A/N:** Thanks for reading! Please leave a review. I'd really appreciate it :)


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